We must first of all review what the Golden Liberty really was. That traditional stance was nothing but libertarianism – a political stance to positively pursue both personal liberalism and economic liberalism – within the society of voters or in a narrow sense. That is neoliberalism in view of economics. One would find the idea even in the Civic Platform’s 2007 manifesto, and would be much less likely to in its 2010 manifesto as which the same time the Palikot Movement was launched.

The problem with libertarianism or neoliberalism is that the idea depends largely on the spontaneous self-sacrifice by the socially strong. The system based on libertarianism or neoliberalism worked relatively well in the 16th century because, as Norman Davies explains, the then socially powerful or Polish nobles would spontaneously practise to a sufficient extent the noblesse oblige or ethical doctrine that human nature was fundamentally good (although most of them were not fully for Jan Tarnowski’s government-reform plan of 1588). The same system no more worked in the 17th century and after, and Lubomirski rebelled against the then government-reform plan advocated by both King and the Parliament. So, in May 1791, the nobles tried a system-change from libertarianism to conservatism (in the sense of moderatism or gradualism) or ethical doctrine that human nature was fundamentally evil, but the attempt was simply too late.

Hence, I find the Palikot Movement to be too optimistic on human nature. The size of government in their idea is too small while that in Law & Justice’s idea is too large. (That is, the size of government assumed in the Civic Platform’s 2007 manifesto was too small, too). However, both governments in thought have one in common – the ethical doctrine that human nature was fundamentally good, and thus evil minds such as greed and selfishness would certainly rule with both governments. Basically, the former assumes that private businesses will practise the spontaneous self-sacrifice with a small government whereas the latter assumes that public officials will practise the spontaneous self-sacrifice with a large government. It is a beautiful symmetry.

It is not that I wouldn’t support the existence of libertarianism in the society but just that I would never support libertarianism. A healthy situation is that there are always some libertarians in both the society and the Parliament without a fear of being oppressed or physically attacked by their opponents. I would never politically support the Palikot Movement, Ms Grodzka or Mr Biedron as the party is a Lubomirski faction in the above sense, but I do support their existence in the Polish society as long as they will not take to the method of power politics whether by sword or, more plausibly today, hot-money. (There is always risk that the Lubomirski faction will morph into a Targowica Confederation. Last time the Targowica confederates allied with the then Russian Tsar, and this time they may ally with international financiers who have long been free from the late Glass-Steagall Act). The idea of society always evolves, and how it evolves or whether it approves the morphing depends on its members. It is voters after all who decide whether or not or to what extent to support libertarianism. Then, each person must thus be secured of the right to criticise others and to decide what to support.

In that case, they have to be careful enough to strictly divide support of/objection to a political stance from support/objection to everyone’s right of supporting/opposing a political stance within the society, by which method the society can avoid fruitless conflicts or hatreds like the ones currently observable between the Kaczynski or Church supporters, the Tusk supporters, and the Palikot or Balcerowicz supporters. The existence of the Palikot Movement doesn’t necessarily mean that the whole of the Polish society approves libertarianism but means that the whole of the society clearly approves the freedom of thought.

It is only totalitarianism or the extreme form of populism, regardless of direction (ref. Definition of totalitarianism by Zbigniew Brzezinski and Carl Friedrich, which, though off-topic, Karl Dietrich Bracher seems to somewhat misinterpret), that persecutes the freedom of thought.

You are going overboard, Mikeinwarsaw. The extreme right-wing nationalism in eastern Europe by no means exceeds western one. No to mention 'economical nationalism'.

If the message that went across "Europe" is that >normal, peaceful Polish citizens with a conservative and genuine patriotic attitude, participating in what should have been a peaceful march, allowed themselves to be dominated and manipulated by an aggressive and violent minority of fellow participant hooligan criminals<

then the message is wrong and inaccurate, as they haven't.

Hooligans from one side fought with the police in the absence of hooligans from the other side, as the latter group (imported from Germany) attacked earlier the wrong, read --> innocent, normal, peaceful guys, and were arrested.

What is more such a message has an air of the used-to-be-usual trials of smearing Poland as home to some special blind nationalism. So let's hope that the Western media (and citizens) who still suffer from that disease will be able to recover - facing the reality again and again.

Just a very short PS;
The organisers (MW and ONR) of Warsaw's "Patriotic" demonstration of the 11th November have now officially accused the police of "deliberate provocation and brutality" towards the participants of their march! Evidently the WM and ONR want their "right to riot" to be legally protected.

Thank God for the internet and youtube. When all the mainstream media are churning out the same propaganda garbage, backing it up with carefully chosen snippets of footage that quite distort the picture, its good to switch off the TV and watch what happened last Friday from various angles.

I'm glad to notice zerwikaptur has done that and now sees last Friday's events from a different perspective. Many thousands of people were gathered in Constitution Square and for the life of me I do not know how mikeinwarsaw with his self-proclaimed "sense of balance" can assume all these folk were from one political option. The only thing I could see they had in common was that they were all proud of the Polish flag. I should add that the march now traditionally stops both at the statue of Piłsudski and at the statue Dmowski. It also honours Paderewski, Witos, Haller, Korfanty, Rozwadowski and many more because all these people contributed to Poland's independence.

Mike thinks he can teach Poles their history, but sorry, Mike, you can't see the wood for the trees. The date was established just a couple of years before Poland again lost her independence, a time when much more pressing issues absorbed Polish minds, and the national holiday was reinstated immediately after Poland regained her independence, i.e. after the collapse of communism, by all who value Polish independence. Everyday Polish disputes are pretty off-putting, just like everyday Polish behaviour in shops, but when push comes to shove we are a nation, and that's why in 1918 Dmowski and Piłsudski were on the same side, and in 1939 their supporters were on the same side, too. The bottom line is Independence.

Unlike 1989, regaining independence in 1918 was a colossal Polish achievement. The state was resurrected from 123 years of oblivion, having been carved up in the 18th century by none other than Russia, Prussia (Germany) and Austria. And resurrection was not thanks to any Western resolutions, those were important, but came later. First Poland had to fight for every scrap of land, tooth and nail, in six victorious border wars. (The most notable victory being over the Bolsheviks, who launched a major offensive to link up with revolutionary Germany and overrun Europe.) Why am I writing about this? To show you where the battle lines are drawn (it's called geopolitics). And that makes it easier to understand why in 1939 (on 1st and 17th Sept)Poland was again overrun by the partitioning powers (Russia, Germany and Austria). Few other nations have suffered as much under Nazism and Communism as the Poles. The Nazism/fascism and communism are the ideologies of our enemies. Being Polish is by definition anti-fascist and anti-communist. Such parties were even illegal before the war, and to call Poles fascist is deeply insulting.

That's the point that Solidarity hero Kornel Morawiecki makes, because the demonstration of German hooligans on Poland's Day of Independence is an unthinkable insult. On you-tube you can see them dressed in black, with a black flag, with armbands, brandishing clubs, making obscene gestures to passers-by and the person filming as they pass one of the many stone commemorative tablets that are found in Warsaw, stone tablets that on Independence Day and on other special days are adorned with flowers and candles. These tablets commemorate the spot where Poles were executed by the compatriots of these so-called "anti-fascists".

These German anarchists are most probably idiots, quite oblivious to the consequences of their actions, but I doubt those who made their visit on that special day possible were idiots. Those who engineered this provocation are simply evil.

As an expat inhabitant of Warsaw for over 20 years and as a physical witness of the events of the 11th November in Poland's capital city, I watched both the official celebrations which started in the late morning of the 11th in Pilsudski Square as well as the subsequent historical display/march past along Krakowskie Przedmiescie and Nowy Swiat. The crowds in both locations were peaceful and joyful, just as they should be and I thoroughly enjoyed the celebrations, the more so that one of my grandfathers fought as an army officer, in the post 1918 Polish consolidation of independence and that his father and grandfather both fought in the 1863-5 uprising, and my father fought in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The 11th November has a personal symbolic value for me.

What happened later on Friday the 11th was a completely different matter, similar to Paris and West Berlin in 1968 (I was a student then) and London this year. Fortunately, the relatively minor disturbance (very few people actually saw or heard it) caused by the German (less than 100) "rent-a-mob" was very quickly contained by the police force and the "rent-a-mob" was taken rapidly to one of the central police stations for processing. All that was over by midday.

Three hours later a very large march (about 9000 according to the police, over 20000 according to the organisers) of "patriotic right wing nationalists" (is anyone who is not a right wing nationalist not a patriot?) with a very large (between 200-2000) violent contingent of "patriotic football supporters and others" concentrated in Constitution Square, close to where I am based. The riot could be heard, seen and smelt (due to both smoke and anti-riot gas) as could the later disturbances around Dmowski's statue. They were nowhere near their Polish political opponents as the police cordons kept them apart by over 200 metres. The march did not continue on to Piłsudski's statue close to his residence, the Belweder Palace and most certainly did not lay wreaths at any of the key 1918 key leaders other than Dmowski: Pilsudski, Witos, Paderewski, Daszynski, Narutowicz et al. It was entirely focused on celebrating Mr Dmowski and his Endecja movement.

Both extremes, right and left behaved disgracefully. The onus is on the organisers of both to behave within the law, denying the violent extremists the ability to participate and disrupt. The peaceful right to speek, meet and demonstrate is a key freedom in a democracy, all too easily destroyed by extremists of all political options. In current Eastern Europe extreme nationalism with its anti-minorities behaviour and slogans (racial, ethnic, religious, sexual) is tolerated in all the countries as these extremists without exception wrap themselves in patriotic flag waving. In effect they are being allowed to steal the message of real patriotism. The hard left is fortunately tiny, largely due to the regional experience of communist rule from 1944-1989/92, unlike in western Europe. Importing left/right "rent-a-mob" from Germany and elsewhere and exporting Polish left/right "rent-a-mob" eg to London and Brussels is an unfortunate fact of life in a Europe which has freedom of movement as a key value.

The sad fact is that normal, peaceful Polish citizens with a conservative and genuine patriotic attitude, participating in what should have been a peaceful march, allowed themselves to be dominated and manipulated by an aggressive and violent minority of fellow participant hooligan criminals. That is the message that has gone out across Poland, Europe, the world and reported by the international mass-media. Will the same happen next year at the Euro2012 football championships or at the 3rd May and 11th November celebrations? I wonder.....

An an independent observer of life in Poland for well over 20 years, I feel fully justified in my comments retaining a sense of balance. Thus, dangerous violent behaviour takes place on both extremes of the political spectrum. Unfortunately for the supporters of the "nationalist-patriot-catholic" camp, they themselves are a much larger community than the extreme left (which has to call in support from western countries, countered by the import of ring-wingers from south of the Polish border. It should be noted that for many years Poles have taken an active part in demonstrations in other EU countries, including in the recent riots in London). Thus the actual number of persons involved on the Right and the consequent physical damage done is disproportionally large compared to that by the Left. The "leftists" this time did not destroy police vehicles or media crew equipments. The "patriotic-kibole" did the thorough job of destruction all by themselves, as they often do in Poland's football stadiums (but not in other sport venues. I wonder why?).

Its one of the ironies of the countries of the EU that violent extremism of the Left is largely found in the West whilst violent extremism of the Right is found mainly in the East. In fact, both have much in common: its enough to compare the nihilistic methods and behaviour of neo-Fascists/Nazis and anarchists/Communists to find that both want the destruction of peaceful, pluralistic and democratic society.

"Patriotism" in its violently nationalist form (true Brits, vrai Francais, prawdziwi Polacy and so on) has little or nothing to do with the real patriotism of living peacefully and working for oneself, family, social group and country. In that lies the fundamental difference between on the one hand the flag waving masked pseudo-patriotic and nihilistic violent gangs and on the other hand the rest of society. The extremists of the left have their true brothers in their opponents on the extreme right and both have as their fundamental aim the destruction of the democratic middle of society. Politicians who decide to "ride that tiger" (eg Messrs J.Kaczynski et al) are making a fundamentally dangerous mistake as they have swallowed the illusion that they will be able to manage the extremists to their own political benefit. European history shows far too many examples where its the extremists who have taken over, be it the Nazis in Germany and Austria or the Bolshevik communists in Russia and elsewhere.

As to Poland's 11th November Independence Day celebrations, it should be pointed out that they were originally founded by the Polish political Left(the PPS and others)in the interwar period. The celebrations were ignored and worse, violently protested against by the hard right wing (MW and ONR) of Poland's National Democrats (Endecja) party for many years. It was afterall a right wing extremist who murdered newly independent Poland's first President Mr G. Narutowicz. Its therefore quite ironic that the pre-war protesters against the Independence Day celebrations are now its most "physically-active" proponents!

"As to Poland's 11th November Independence Day celebrations, it should be pointed out that they were originally founded by the Polish political Left(the PPS and others)in the interwar period. The celebrations were ignored and worse, violently protested against by the hard right wing (MW and ONR) of Poland's National Democrats (Endecja) party for many years. It was afterall a right wing extremist who murdered newly independent Poland's first President Mr G. Narutowicz. Its therefore quite ironic that the pre-war protesters against the Independence Day celebrations are now its most "physically-active" proponents!"
The left celebrated Independence Day on 7 November. 11 November was introduced by "sanacja" who were not really so friendly with the "endecja" (National Democrats) even if at the end of the pre-war Poland some of the elements got closer. However, now it is a symbol uniting Polish patriots.

I do not share your personal self-evaluation as independent.
Even in this thread, as noted by Forlana, your initial description of the riots completely ignored the leftists bandits from Germany. Only when you could not ignore it anymore you incorporated them as in the narrative only to stress that they are not really dangerous compared to the threat from the right (using them as a "background").
My post was only to correct the imbalance.

"In that lies the fundamental difference between on the one hand the flag waving masked pseudo-patriotic and nihilistic violent gangs and on the other hand the rest of society." Even here you say that anyone waving a flag is a pseudo-patriot. I do not see waving a flag and living peacefully and working for oneself, family, social group and country as alternatives. It is a false dichotomy.
The problem is that it is the left that reserves the right to distinguish between the true patriotism and the dangerous pseudo-patriotism, and the left barely tolerates the Polish flag, as the left believes that the Poles should be kept at bay because there is a potential "demon of patriotism" and the patriotism is chauvinism and chauvinism is fascism.
Straight from the Stalinist playbook describing pre-war Poland as "fascist".

Poland suffered a lot from the left and a lot from the ideological very close cousins of the left (national socialists) and it makes me sick when I see a Pole who follows either communism in its today incarnation of cultural marxism (Palikot's Movement and a large part of the Democratic Left Alliance, as the rest has not migrated there yet) or another Pole who makes the "Roman salute".
They are both worth each other.

I do not say that I am independent and impartial as no one is, especially in the matters of politics.

The video posted by from Gdansk gives a picture of "kid-glove" (your own description) treatment that the Polish authorities give to Poland's citizens.
I do not go so far as "from Gdansk" to suggest that there was a police provocation but I do think that police applied a preferential treatment to the leftist gathering compared to the patriotic march.
I read a piece in "Rzeczpospolita" newspaper (http://www.rp.pl/artykul/9133,751324-Marsz-Niepodleglosci-i-bojowki-z-Ni...) by Mr Morawiecki when he said that he had advised the Independence March organisers to invite the whole spectrum of the politicians (including the left) to participate in the march. One of the organisers said that simply not everybody is interested in independent Poland.
I do think that such a march would be a perfect solution and I do think that many people on the left are not interested in independent Poland or the maximum they are interested in is a "Poland" devoid of any patriotism and historical references with the "celebrations" of the Independence Day indistinguishable from celebrations of May Day.
After all, even here on this site comments sections you can find people happily posting "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" and inventing facts to justify their anti-clerical mania.
To me treason is the last refuge of a leftist.

The presence of German "anti-fascists" in the centre of Warsaw on Poland's Independence Day was not so much a "red herring" as part of a major police provocation.

I'm not taking anyone's side, but the facts speak for themselves. I'm sure Germans, especially Berliners know a lot more about these "anti-fascists' than me, but I think it's fair to describe them as rent-a-mob specializing in hooliganism and thuggery. Their arrival was announced weeks in advanced, concerns were publicly expressed, and of course these concerns were fully justified. So why did the authorities let them come?

I believe the police when they say that their coaches were monitored from at least the moment they crossed the border, but my question is why did they let them in? How did these anarchists manage to smuggle in so much gear? Why did the police let them blockade such a wide stretch of road. Not for one moment do I believe the police were caught off their guard. The whole blockade, as a result of which a legal march of perhaps 20k people had to change its course, looked stage managed. The blockade was formed before the main march had assembled, and people with their Polish flags, wishing to join the main march were forced to go down side streets, where some of them were attacked by the German anarchists while others by the police. The anarchists did not only spit on Poles in period costumes, they also beat at least one Pole from Gdynia, who was unfortunate enough to meet them wearing a white and red scarf and carrying a Polish flag, sensless. He's still in hospital.

The Germans were free to run in a large group, dressed in black, with a black flag and brandishing axe handles, they were free to attack Poles out in the street during their national holiday, and then the police, at virtually walking pace, pursued them back to their base, the leftist Political Critique cafe in a rather expensive part of town. 92 were subsequently arrested (which was certainly not all of them, because the rest was manning the "spontaneous" barricade), but as far as I know, none of them were hurt. As I said everything looks stage managed.

On the other hand, their is more than enough evidence of excessively brutal treatment of ordinary Poles. The German anarchists were mostly young amateurs, the Polish police were professional, and they clearly attacked not the German "guests" but the Poles.

There is also plenty of evidence of other masked police or leftist provocateurs stirring up trouble as well as footage of policemen in riot gear spraying or pooring a substance into a smashed up police car which a short while later, after they leave, bursts into flames. The burning of the TVN vehicles is also strange. They were first attacked by a group of unidentified hooligans, then surrounded by police, and only later, after the police for an inexplicable reason withdrew, did they too burst into flames.

It is also important to note that the main march was not escorted by the police, yet despite being diverted and at one stage briefly declared "illegal", 20,000 people somehow managed to behave. Moreover, marches and parades in all the other cities and towns of Poland were organised by the people, not the authorities, and they were all joyful, civilized, family affairs. In Gdansk for instance football fans gathered around the statue of king Sobieski and did nothing worse than sing the national anthem, characteristically off key. Being a football fan is not a crime.

I have no time for anyone who violently breaks the law in any country, be they of the right, left , middle or any other option, political or otherwise. They should be contained, punished and severely so. All too often violent extremists of various political options start dominating the political climate, doing irreversible damage to a democracy, whether it be Germany of 1929-32 which resulted in Hitler coming to power, or various communist take-overs in Europe or elsewhere in the post 1945 period. Both the far-right and far left ave much to answer for.

That a bunch of German anarchists came by bus (under Polish police supervision) to Warsaw for the 11th November with the intention to violently or peacefully confront "neo-nazis" or "neo-fascists" or untra nationalists is a fact. When they, before midday attacked a group of persons parading in historical uniforms (the full numbers and facts have still not been released by the police, all we have is journalistic and politicians "descriptions"), the anarchists were very promptly pushed by the police into a coffee house/restaurant, detained and taken to one of the Warsaw police stations for processing, and kept there to the following day. They took no further part therefore in the demos. Their actions were deplorable and rightly should be punished by the courts, if there is a case to answer ("Innocent till proven guilty").

However, that does not excuse whatsoever the rioting, no doubt done by a violent ultra right nationalist minority (anything from 200-2000 mostly masked persons), that started nearly three hours later in Constitution Square and later in the evening near the Dmowski statue. In both locations it was the police that was attacked with many police injured and over 40 police vehicles damaged or destroyed, as well as journalists and their support teams, in similarity to previous occasions such as football matches.

Violent hooliganery should not be tolerated whatsoever and needs to be harshly and visibly punished. The fact that these hooligans promote themselves as nationalist patriot "true Poles" frankly is a disgrace and they should be disowned by their political promotors such as ex-Senator Romaszewski (who had a very distinguished record of political opposition to the communist regime prior to 1989).

Peaceful protest and demostrations are a quintessential part of democracy. Violent rioting is an abnegation of democracy, whether it is in Warsaw, Paris, London, Berlin or any other city and irrespective of the beliefs of its propagators. I understand that under Polish Law, the organisers of a demostration are responsible for the behaviour of its participants and financially liable for any damages caused. That needs to be done.

The Polish authorities' kid-glove treatment of violent extremists needs to be ended. That includes moving the responsibility for the registration and control of all and any demostrations from the local municipal authorities to the regional national governmental level, so that necessary police action: preventive, proactive and reactive, is visibly firm and decisive. Also subsequent action by the prosecution service and the courts.

One cannot tolerate double standards: violent extremism in any form and political colour is unacceptable. Unfortunately, I get the impression that far too many politicians of both the far-right and far-left (whatever they call or define themselves as) are only too willing to criticise and blame their opponents for violent behaviour but are unwilling to categorically do the same regarding their own political supporters. I get the impression from your blog comments that, unfortunately, you take a one sided view of the 11th November riots, criticising the left and effectively supporting the nationalist right in its violent excesses.

Mikeinwarsaw, excellent comment! I think zerwikaptur will agree with you here, too. Earlier, you have sounded as unwilling to notice 'the leftists' violence. Those violent 'leftists' who came to Warsaw to 'fight the fascism' (sic!) with clubs, brass knuckles etc. found in the downtown cafe they sought refuge in. Btw. the cafe belongs to one of the organizers of the anti-march' of the left.
The police acted correctly, as the imported hoolignas did attack a peaceful, mainstream celebration. Imagine what would the pseudo-patriots, the hooligans in Plac Konstytucji do with them if they would have showed up near Plac Konstytucji.

The right to demostrate peacefully one's views (freedom of speech and assembly) is a fundamental freedom in a democracy. But that freedom has to operate within the law and not beyond it and is limited by and to the point where it infringes on the democratic rights of others. Democracy is not anarchy.

Unfortunately, due to the organisers of the "Nationalist-Patriots" march on the 11th November being unable or unwilling to control their own supporters and participants, part of their demonstration quickly dissolved into the riot that takes place each year under MW/ONR football hooligan leadership. The organisers diverted the route of their march eastwards into Koszykowa Street from where they proceeded to their ultimate location the Dmowski statue, close to the Prime Minister's Office. Their masked hooligan supporters spent their time rioting and attacking both police and journalists in Constitution Square and near the Dmowski Statue, in fact, nowhere near the rival demonstration.

The "rainbow left" demo was peaceful, legal and in its registered place half a city block (about 200 metres) away from Constitution Square with a very large empty space and two intervening and surrounding lines of police cordons. If this demonstration had been held somewhere else in Warsaw raises the question of whether the nationalist riot would have taken place. Given that there was zero contact between the two sides, I suspect that the masked nationalist hooligans would have rioted anyway, just as they all too often do in Poland's football stadiums.

The foreign involvement (mainly about 90 Germans) is a media red herring as they were all already under preventive arrest in a police station over 2.5 hours before the start of the "Nationalist -Patriot" demo, nearly 2km away. All these foreigners were released without charge the following day.

Both the law on public assembly badly needs updating to represent the reality of public life in Poland as it currently is, as against what the lawmakers pious and naive hopes were back in 1989, but also the responsibility for planning and controlling police response should be raised to a higher, central governmental level (Ministry for Internal Affairs) and away from local government, especially in Poland's capital city.

You statement “Their masked hooligan supporters” assumes a kind of control over/connection to over the hooligans from the right exercised by the march organisers. Sorry, not existing.
The march gathered several thousand people (I have seen estimates from a few thousand up to thirty) and was peaceful.

Last year the patriotic march (also legally organised I stress) was blocked by leftists and that was the cause of some street “battles” last year ( last year it was too small to call it riots in my opinion).
The current Polish law says that any attempt to block a legal demonstration is illegal, however for the second time in a row it was the patriotic march, not the leftist counter-demonstration, that was diverted.

"If this demonstration had been held somewhere else in Warsaw raises the question of whether the nationalist riot would have taken place." The leftist gathering in 2011 should have been moved elsewhere by the police because it was smaller and easier to move. The other story is why the town-hall allowed two demonstrations to take place in the same place.
The 2011 counter-demonstration was advertised as measure to block the 2011 legal march and the German leftist hooligans were invited for this only purpose. If they just went to the counter-demonstration there would be no problem, apart from the fact by advertising the counter-demonstration as a blockade was a breach of the law by itself.

Apparently you, a self-declared Briton, do not give a …. about a Polish uniform but I, as a Pole have not respect for Polish speaking leftists who invite such creatures on the Independence day to Poland.

“All these foreigners were released without charge the following day.”
The court hearings will be held in December, even in absentia.

The counter-demonstration was advertised as a measure to block the legal patriotic march and that alone should be alone to delegalise the leftist counter-demonstration. On the Independence Day the group of leftists was much smaller and stationary than the march so the counter-demonstration should have been asked to move elsewhere as from the logistical point of view it was the easier solution. Unfortunately police took side with the leftists.

Poland's newly elected Parliament has: One transexual MP (from ultra conservative Krakow!)at least one declared homosexual and two MPs who are of African origin. Not bad for a country which has a tiny non-european ethnic community. ...Clearly the times are a-changing.

As to the Independence Day riots in Warsaw, foreign involvement was limited by the police to them being preventively arrested by midday on the 11th, well over two hours before the ultra right nationalists, led by their football hooligan squads, attacked the police in Constitution Square. The counter demostration in Constitution Square was peaceful but here the municipal authorities made a mistake in allowing it to take place in the same location at the same time. The police were therefore forced to hold the middle ground, which the nationalist hooligans used as an excuse to attack. Subsequently the same nationalist football hooligan groups attacked journalists and their technical support further along the route of their march. Over 40 police vehicles were damaged or destroyed as well as media vans and cars (from both private and public channels). Why? To prevent the media recording the criminal behaviour.

Frankly, its high time that the political spectrum in Poland's Parliament reflected the diversity of views, beliefs and attitudes in Poland's electorate. The monolithic (other than in economic matters) ultra conservative, hide-bound political class, subservient to the Polish Vatican like no other in Europe, has at last started to evolve into reflecting the evolving views of the general voting population.

Thus support for the Palikot movement has largely come from the younger urban voters though significantly 32% of Palikot voters are from the rural countryside. How much support for the Palikot movement is the direct result of the interventionist behaviour of the Polish Vatican and its subservient politicians is something that needs to be explored. One may not agree with Palikot's views and his more extreme comments, but the fact is that he does represent the views of the younger voter, other than those from the nationalist-catholic extreme right.

Friday's Polish Independence Day celebrations, with very sensible speeches from the President of the Republic and other centre political leaders, were ruined by violent rioting in Warsaw city centre by hard core football hooligan supporters and other activists of the neo-fascist extreme right including ones from Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Rep) in confrontation with left wing anarchists (some of the latter coming from Germany). The police, trying to hold the middle ground, managed to keep destruction and injuries to a barely acceptable minimum. Tougher reaction from the police, given Poland's political history pre 1989, is unacceptable to some sections of society. Its very sad that the only comment from the country's right wing political leader of the "Law and Justice" Party, Mr Kaczynski, was a diatribe putting the entire blame on the Germans. Factually, it was his football hooligan ultras who started the disorders by attacking the police and journalists including TV crews, in their attempts to break through the police cordon to get at the anti-fascist counter demonstration. So much for law and justice!

Again some hard-core leftist propaganda on the level of veracity of Soviet Pravda.
It was leftist hooligans from Germany invited by the leftists from Poland who attacked Polish reconstructionists wearing Polish uniforms from Napoleonic era.
The attack happened not in the vicinity of the patriotic march but in a different area. Majority of the participants of the march were peaceful (many families with children) however the police decided to ask the march to change the route effectively taking sides with the leftist demonstrators.
It is very interesting that the left in Poland did not care much about the Independence Day as long as the right did not start organising the march. Then suddenly the left decided to block the march. Usual negativism of the neo-Bolsheviks against commemoration of Poland's independence.

Palikot is a pure populist who changes his views depending on political gains he can make.

A few years ago he financed a conservative newspaper "Ozon". At the time he publicly declared to support traditional values.

Then Palikot joined PO, the largest party in the parliament brown-nosing its leaders and providing them with "food and wine" (as Aleksander Smolar put it).

After that he launched a campaign with aggressive anti-clerical slogans, he also brutally blackened PIS (the right-wing party) ... and his former colleagues from PO. Clever Palikot is for sure. But is he trustworthy?

Palikot party is simply product of secret services and post-communist oligarchs. His voters were stolen from different political movements, firstly from populist Self-Defence (which leader - Andrzej Lepper committed suicide in very suspicious circumstances shortly before general election), secondly from Janusz Korwin-Mikke whose party was refused of registration. Such outcome of the last election could be also simply fraud since legal standards were very poor. For example, It is impossible to check accounts of IT company which served the last election. Whole processing of votes‘ calculations was dealt by private persons out of supervision of election committee (just great opportunity to improve the calculations). Palikot is sad consequence of the last year murder of polish president and dignitaries in air crash in Smolensk. He is supported secretly by new oligarchs which got rich by fraudulent privatisations. At present Poland just follows a well established path by Putin in Russia.

Not so long ago (up to 2006), Janusz Palikot was associated with the rightwing Catholic weekly Ozon, which was very critical of homosexuality, euthanasia, abortion. The son of a communist, who as a teenager in the early 1980s was arrested by the secret police for distributing pro-Solidarity leaflets. After his release, he went to the Catholic Univeristy of Lublin to study philosophy and apparently made a fortune, first selling wooden pallets, and later cheap alcohol. At the Institute of National Remembrance there is a communist secret police document bearing Palikot's signature, in which he promises to keep his police contacts secret.

Anna Grodzka, up until last year was Krzysztof Bęgowski, closely assoicated with the post-communist SLD, in the 1980s he was also active in the communist students' union. In the 1990s we saw former communists suddenly become devote Catholics, ardent supporters of democracy, freedom of speech and above economic liberalism. Only a cow doesn't change its views, they'd argue. Now they even change their sex.

Palikot's success is based on the fact that his party occupies a quadrant of Polish politics that has until now been vacant - the economically and socially liberal quadrant. The post-communist SLD are socially liberal but are happy with tax-and-spend economics, while Kaczyński's so-called "right wing" may be socially conservative, but have nothing in common with the economic policies of America's Republicans. Traditional "left wing" and "right wing" epithets are unhelpful when it comes to explaining Polish politics to outsiders.